Revs announce first two 2013 player signings

The York Revolution announced the first player signings of 2013 on Friday.

The club has reached deals with starting pitcher Chris Cody and third baseman Andy Marte. Cody, who turned 29 earlier this month, will return to York for the third straight year, while Marte, 29, will make his Atlantic League debut with the Revs.

Marte will come to York with 301 major league games under his belt, mostly with the Cleveland Indians. Signed by the Atlanta Braves as an undrafted free agent in 2000, Marte was once considered a big-time prospect. His .275 batting average, 20 homers and 74 RBIs in 109 games at Class AAA Richmond in 2005 earned him a call-up that season to the Braves' big-league club, when he played in 24 games.

That offseason, the Braves re-signed third baseman Chipper Jones to a three-year contract but lost shortstop Rafael Furcal in free agency to the Los Angeles Dodgers. As a result, Atlanta traded Marte to the Boston Red Sox for shortstop Edgar Renteria. A month later, the Red Sox traded Marte to the Indians as part of a seven-player deal.

Marte, a Dominican Republic native, saw significant action with Cleveland from 2006 to 2010 but never batted above .229 at the plate. For his career, Marte holds a .219 big-league batting average with 20 homers and 96 RBIs.

The right-handed batter spent 2011 with the Pittsburgh Pirates' Class AAA Indianapolis club, batting .202 with seven homers and 37 RBIs in 97 games. He spent last season playing in the Dominican Summer League.

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"We kicked his name around a little bit last year, but being that we had (Ramon) Castro and (Chris) Nowak, there was really no need for a corner infielder," Revs' baseball operations manager Andrew Ball said.

Cody has a combined 19-19 record and 4.38 ERA in 46 starts the last two seasons with York.

In 2011, he started the season with the Revs by going 9-5 with a 4.39 ERA before being picked up by the Braves and assigned to Class AA Mississippi, where he went 3-1 with a 3.46 ERA in six starts.

A former eighth-round draft pick of the Detroit Tigers in 2006, Cody later reached Class AAA Nashville (Milwaukee Brewers) in 2009.

Hernandez to Tigers' organization: Add Michael Hernandez to the list of players who finished last season with the Revs, but will start the 2013 season elsewhere.

Ball said Hernandez has been signed by the Detroit Tigers.

"He doesn't have an invitation to spring training but it sounds like he'll go to AAA camp with them," Ball said.

Hernandez is the second Revs' player in recent weeks to earn a contract with a big league organization. Starting pitcher Ryan Feierabend got picked up by the Texas Rangers earlier this month.

Hernandez, 29, returns to the same organization he spent time with in his first two years as a pro in 2006 and 2007. He reached Class AA Erie in 2007, batting .250 with four homers and 19 RBIs in 18 games.

The Brooklyn native played the following season in Class A ball in the New York Mets' system before coming to the Atlantic League in 2009, where he has played ever since.

In 2012 with the Revs, Hernandez batted .303 and earned second-team All-Atlantic League honors and started in the 2012 Atlantic League All-Star Game. He had 13 homers and 55 RBIs in 104 games.

For more York Revolution news, check out The York Dispatch Revolution Rumblings blog at www.ydtalk.com/revs.Reach John Walk at jwalk@yorkdispatch.com.